They are airing from Boston, MA. How did I miss that
one, I should have gone! Oh well. Our hosts for th
evening are Joey Styles and Tazz.

-The show starts off on the right track as ECW World
Champion CM Punk comes to the ring! He is preparing
for Armageddon with a tag team match.

CM Punk and Kane vs. Deuce & Domino (with Cherry)
Domino squares off against Punk in the early going.
Domini shoves Punk and receives some stiff martial
arts kicks for his trouble. Punk tags in Kane and
monkey-flips Domino. Kane proceeds to destroy Domino
with shots and an elbow drop. Punk tags in and hit's a
knee to the face and bulldog. Punk goes high risk, but
is distracted by Deuce. Punk goes for the springboard
clothesline, but Domino knees him in the gut. That was
the coolest thing I've seen Domino do in the entire
year he's been on the roster. Deuce tags in and
dominates Punk for a little while. Punk is hung up on
the ropes, and Domino tags in for an elbow to the
back. Domino works the back, as he stretches CM Punk
over his knee. Punk hits some knees to the face to
break the hold. Punk needs a tag, but Domino hit's a
clothesline for a cover attempt. Punk dodges a raging
Domino, sending him flying to the floor. Kane gets the
tag and cleans house on D&D. Sideslam and flying
clothesline by Kane onto poor Domino. Deuce runs in,
and Kane catches him for a choke slam. Punk grabs
Domino for Go 2 Sleep. Kane gets the pin and this is
over! This was a basic formula tag match, with a
couple of cool moments (Domino's gut buster on Punk)
that made for a good opener, *1/4.Winners: Kane and CM Punk

-Backstage, Shelton Benjamin is smiling about
something. He wants to talk about gold, specifically
the 49er's and their quest for gold. Benjamin says
he's been champion three times in WWE (well, six
times, if you count his Tag Team and Intercontinental
championships). Benjamin puts over his new moniker as
the gold standard in ECW and there's no stopping him
now.

John Morrison and The Miz vs. Shannon Moore and Jimmy
Wang Yang
Morrison's entrance is hilarious (they show a close up
of his face in slow motion, with his hair waving in
the wind). I like The Miz's hat. No kidding. It took
almost two years, but Miz has been showing some big
improvement lately, I would like to see that continue
tonight. Moore and Miz start the match with some wrist
work. They tie up again, with Miz cornering the
Smackdown jobber. Moore takes offense to this and
slaps Miz as if he had just read my previous comment.
Moore slides through Miz's legs and hits some arm
drags. Swinging neck breaker by Moore gets him a cover
attempt (doesn't quite get 2). Yang tags in and drops
Miz with a drop-kick. Miz pounds Yang off him and tags
in Morrison. Yang hit's a leg sweep and a standing
moonsault. Moore tags back in and hit's a sunset flip
on Morrison. Moore works the arm and tags Yang in.
Yang continues work on the arm. Morrison elbows his
way to freedom, and hit's a nice European uppercut.
Yang rebounds with an arm drag and restarts the work
on the arm. Moore tags in and helps Yang hit a double
suplex. Moore gets a near fall on Morrison, and drags
him over for a tag to Yang. Yang hit's a sharp chop
and sends Morrison charging into the guard rail.
Morrison and Miz find themselves at ringside to
regroup, but Moore and Yang hit simultaneous
moonsaults off the ropes onto them. We head to a
commercial, and so far this match is firing on all
cylinders.

After the break, we find Morrison working a head lock
on Yang. Aww, but Yang and Moore were winning before
the break! Oh well. Yang has been the face in peril,
and hit's a desperate back suplex. Miz and Moore both
tag in, with Moore cleaning house. Moore tries to go
high risk, but Miz slams him to the mat. Morrison tags
and pounds away on poor Shannon. Moore gets catapulted
throat-first into the ropes. Miz drops Moore on the
ropes again and gets a near fall. Miz pound s away and
works a crossface. Moore rolls out, but Miz hit's a
clothesline. Morrison tags, and helps Miz plant Moore
face-first on the mat. Morrison goes for the cover,
but Yang makes the save. Morrison backs Moore into the
heel corner, and Miz tags for some fun choking. Cover
by Miz only gets 2. Moore hit's a desperate back body
drop, but Morrison tags and cuts off the tag. Yang
tags in and hit's a flying cross body on Morrison and
dominates. Sick monkey flip by Yang sends Morrison
twisting through the air. Yang connects with the
spinning heel kick for a close 2 count. Moore and Miz
take each other out at ringside. Morrison attempts the
back superplex. Morrison barely dodges the moonsault,
covers Yang with his feet on the ropes, but Moore
breaks it. Morrison then hit's a neck breaker on Yang
and finally puts the resilient red neck away. This was
tremendous tag team wrestling, ***. Now if only
Morrison and Miz could have a credible tag team to
feud with.Winners: John Morrison and The Miz

-We get another introduction package for Kofi
Kingston. We should like him because he hangs out on a
beach and puts bullies in their place. This is the
same video from last week. That's okay, because last
time I missed the part where the wimp Kingston saved
runs in and kicks sand in the face of the bully who's
buried up to his neck. That's hilarious.

Kelly Kelly vs. Victoria and Layla
Kelly is sporting Red Sox attire in an attempt to gain
some cheap face heat from these Boston fans. It works.
Layla starts off against Kelly, but Victoria holds
Kelly still. Kelly escapes. Victoria tags in and
pounds on Kelly. Victoria carries Kelly through the
same tirt-a-whirl head scissors spot they successfully
pulled off last week. Kelly desperately pounds on
Victoria before being dropped by a single clothesline.
Scoop slam by Victoria and then a tag to Layla.
Hideous leg drop by Layla, who then goes for the hair.
Layla has better luck hitting a snap mare. Layla goes
for the arm bar, but Kelly quickly fights her off.
Kelly hooks the leg for a cover, but Layla immediately
kicks out. Victoria gets a tag and slams Kelly. Layla
tags and hit's the hideous leg drop again. Victoria
slams Layla onto Kelly. I really hope Victoria is
getting a bonus for making these untrained divas look
competent. Victoria holds Kelly still for a
clothesline, but Kelly escapes. Kelly tosses Layla
around and hit's a suplex for a cover. Victoria breaks
the cover with a dropkick. Victoria gets the tag and
sets up Kelly for Layla, who hit's a stiff kick to the
head for the victory. Seriously, Victoria carried the
entire match, even when she wasn't in the ring, 1/2*.Winners: Layla and Victoria

-After the match, Victoria and Layla attempt a
beat-down, but Michelle McCool runs in for the save. I
promise you we will see these four in a tag match next
week.

-Backstage, Matt Striker is standing by with Big Daddy
V and Mark Henry. Viscera reminds us that Kane has
reached his "decade of destruction" and promises
victory. Henry tells Punk and Kane to run. Striker
then quotes the Bible in a smug fashion and tells Punk
and Kane to worry about Armageddon. I'm disappointed
that we weren't treated to more maniacal laughter from
Henry.

-Elijah Burke comes to the ring for his match. He
takes the mic and claims that he will defeat Batista
simply because their match is taking place during the
ECW broadcast. Burke doesn't care if Batista is the
World Champion, he will fall to the Elijah Experience.

Batista vs. Elijah Burke
Joey Styles thinks this is Batista's first time on
ECW. Apparently he forgot about that time last year
when Batista faced Big Show in the Hammerstein
Ballroom to chants of "you both suck" and "change the
channel." Let's hope things go better for Batista this
time. Batista corners Burke, who stomps on his toe.
Burke flees to ringside to regain himself, and tries
to elbow drop Batista on the way back to the ring.
Batista is annoyed and slams Burke into the barricade.
Back in the ring, Burke knees Batista in the face and
thrusts him into the ring post. Burke gets control for
the time being and goes for an early cover. Batista
fires back, but Burke connects with a drop kick to the
leg, DDT, and another cover. Cue the rest hold.
Batista fights to his feet, but Burke sweeps him off
his feet. After another failed cover, Burke goes back
to the rest hold. Batista escapes again and hit's the
spine buster. Running clothesline and shoulder thrusts
by Batista. Burke flips out of an Irish whip and drop
kicks Batista into the turnbuckles. Burke goes for the
Elijah Express, but Batista hit's a spear! Batista
Bomb finishes Burke. This was perfectly acceptable
squashing, *.Winner: Batista

Final Thoughts: Putting Batista on the show doesn't do
any favors for ECW other than potentially spiking
ratings (which it didn't, this show did a 1.3) but the
rest of the show just clicked for me. John Morrison
and The Miz are on a serious roll, I just wish they
had a storyline. I miss the Originals a lot (where is
Dreamer anyway?) but the new guys are doing a good job
right now. I am actually at a point where I would
recommend ECW consistently for the first time, well,
ever. I hope they can keep this up, and hopefully the
ratings will improve too.
Thumbs up.